KROQ Weenie Roast y Fiesta - Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Irvine - 5/5/12

The Weenie Roast is always a great show for people who just want to be entertained. You sit back, watch the giant platform on the main stage rotate (no waiting time in-between sets!) and just take it all in. It's a fun, boisterous, beer-spilling kind of crowd, so when you DO get beer spilled on you, you just raise your glass and say "Cheers!"

This year -- its 20^th -- the modern rock station once again held the festival at the Verizon Wireless in Irvine, and once again called it the Weenie Roast y Fiesta (it was Cinco de Mayo, after all). Surrounded by countless fans in Mexican hats boozing it up, I tried to imagine how the powers that be at KROQ planned their event: "We should pick bands who've been around since we started, to reinforce the idea that all of us -- the bands, the audience, KROQ -- grew up together in music."

So when Offspring's Dexter Holland sang "But they didn't have Ice Cube so he bought Vanilla Ice," on "Pretty Fly for a White Guy," I felt like I was 13 and in braces again. I was reminded of my gigantic girl-crush on Shirley Manson when Garbage performed "No. 1 Crush," and a cover of Patti Smith's "Because the Night." And when Brandon Boyd ripped off his shirt during Incubus' set, I drooled, like I would've when I was in my early 20s and Incubus ruled the airwaves. Come to think of it, it's been a very long time since I've seen a shirtless rockstar, which could mean one of two things: Either all the bands I watch now are old and their singers aren't interested in being nekkid anymore, or it's not a requisite lead singer move anymore. (Speaking of Incubus -- Brandon Boyd is still incredibly hot and his voice is amazing. Also I was sure he was going to get pneumonia.)

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